


Scholarly Pursuits

by morrezela



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Dragons, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-08
Updated: 2013-06-08
Packaged: 2017-12-14 09:12:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/835206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morrezela/pseuds/morrezela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jared had been obsessed with dragons since the day that one saved him from the fire that killed his parents. It just took him a while to decide to actually do something about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scholarly Pursuits

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This isn’t real. The people mentioned belong to themselves. I am receiving no remuneration from this.
> 
> Warnings: dragon fic
> 
>  
> 
> A/N This was written for usagimc an heartblowswild who won my auction fo fandomaid for Hurricane Sandy Relief. Many thanks to them for their generous donation and their prompts. Today is the day that the story comes off its one week lock hold, so I hope that you all enjoy it :).
> 
>  
> 
> All mistakes you find are my own.

If there was one person in the entire Eastern Kingdoms that could be called a dragon expert, it was Jared Padalecki. Not that it would do any soul a single bit of good. No. It was well known that Jared was a bit… odd when it came to dragons.

Many a knight had tried to ply him with mead, many a maiden with her bosoms, but he would not lend aide when it came to slaying the beasts. He was enamored of them at the best of times, obsessed at the worst. There were those that claimed that he was touched in the head.

Jared claimed he was touched in the heart. That men should hunt down such magnificent creatures was absurd to him. He had studied all the scrolls, listened to all the minstrels, and dragon attacks that culminated in great property loss and death were minimal.

The casualties of these supposed ‘fiends’ were far less than that of lords and barons fighting over their own property markers. And that was exactly what dragons tended to do. They attacked when their territory was in danger.

There were a few of them, consumed by lust and greed, that would swoop into cities and try to take off with gold and jewels that were not theirs. But Jared reasoned that these dragons were not unlike men whose eyes wandered too far and whose reach was overextended. Not all men were good, why should all dragons be?

One would think that Jared’s unorthodox views would leave him reviled and friendless, but such was not the case. At least – he was not reviled. Pitied, maybe, for he was recognized as a bright mind who had suffered great hardships growing up. The townsfolk would whisper about his poor head breaking under all the sorrow.

There was a great fire when Jared was a little boy. A terrible, burning monster that consumed building after building as the thatched roofs of the city spread the flames. The old men said that the first spark was the touch of dragon’s breath for their ports were full of trade that day – bounty that the dragons coveted.

But Jared he swore that his tiny, young life had been rescued by a dragon. He would tell any who would listen that a magnificent beast had descended from the sky and plucked his running, chubby self from the cobbled streets before the fire had the chance to lick its way over his flesh.

Jared’s parents died in that fire as did many others. Perhaps if it were anybody but Jared, there would be those who would hate him for his unyielding defense of the dragons. All members of the village had felt loss at the fire. But Jared was the boy who lost the most. The remnants of his childhood were kept in a box by his bed. A charred brick from his father’s flower shop, a blackened needle from his mother’s sewing kit, a tiny stuffed puppy that he had been clutching in his arms that fateful night – these were what Jared had left of his family.

So Jared was pitied from afar and treated with gentleness because that was all he ever showed to others. Perhaps his words would be seen as terrifying lunacy in other villages or even treason, but the people of his home treated him as if he was a blind kitten.

Most days, Jared was accepting of that. If they did not want to hear his words about dragons, at least the left him alone over it. There had been those that had come seeking his knowledge that had not been so kind.

On other days though, Jared was known to feel sorry for himself. He was a friendly person by nature, gentle and charming. He did not like to be alone even though his beliefs made certain that he was. It would be easy for him to eschew his beliefs if not for the fact that he felt himself to be an honorable man.

He owed his life to that dragon that saved him. Nothing good ever came from forsaking a debt. Besides, what would he do with himself if he didn’t spend all of his time pursuing dragons? Sit in the streets and trade full time? The thought was a sad one. Jared made enough to keep himself comfortable in his rooms; he didn’t need more than that.

The trade ascribed to him by the town census was ‘horse trader’ though Jared hadn’t traded a horse in nigh on ten months. They were fine animals, but expensive to keep when one did not own a stable. No, Jared traded in everything and anything so long as it was legal. A boy had to when he grew up in the orphanage. Jared had not been one of the scarce few to have a benefactor, so he had to scrape for what little he got and soon learned that he disliked scraping.

So he’d built a comfortable life for himself with nothing more than his own two hands and a winning smile. Trade up, trade often was his motto. He hadn’t the room to spare for more than one obsession, and dragons were it for him.

It made for a bit of a lonely existence, and he blamed that as the reason for why he felt so out of sorts when Jensen came to visit. Jensen was most decidedly handsome. Every time that he and his team of shiny horses came to town, the maidens and wives and widow would peek their heads out of their windows to catch a glimpse of him.

The man was not flawless. Jared knew this for a fact, but Jensen’s prettiness had a way of making a man fail to take heed of how his ears stuck out just a little too much or how he could look all of twelve years old when put on the right hat.

Where Jared was a ‘horse trader,’ Jensen was nothing short of a showman. His painted wagon was made from carved wood and deeply hued leathers. The spokes on its wheels were embossed with brass and the running boards with copper. And the insides? The insides of it held the sort of wonders that Jared could only dream of bartering for when the ships came into harbor.

There was always a frenzy on port days. Though the dock masters and fleet owners ran the show, there was always a sailor or two who would have their own booty to sell. Those bobbles and trinkets from far off lands were much sought after, but Jared was far too timid to use his mass to break into the fray. He contented himself with the left overs once the more robust traders made their way through the goods of the seamen.

Jared did not look forward to port days. They made him feel sad.

But Jensen’s goods outshone all of the paltry tidbits that sailors brought. His wagon never failed to lift Jared’s spirits, and that was before he started his show. The man swore that he was not a minstrel by trade, but Jared rather thought he was a liar. For even his bartering took on a singsong quality, his actions that of a travelling theater group more than a salesman.

It was a treat to watch even if one hadn’t a coin to one’s name. The market square was always full when Jensen came. Well, almost always full. Not even the cheer of Jensen’s wagon and fine team of horses could fight against torrential downpours.

“Bad luck,” Jared commiserated as Jensen unhooked his fine bay mares from their gilded harnesses.

Jensen smirked at him. “Bad luck for you,” he corrected. “I know you fare better on days that I’m in the market.”

Jared smiled back. What Jensen said was true enough. Many people hadn’t the gold or the product to barter for Jensen’s bobbles, but the desire to buy and trade was an infectious one. Jared’s goods were utilitarian, but they filled that need to make a purchase as well as anything else.

“Will you be staying until the weather lifts?” Jared asked. Sometimes Jensen stayed and would unfurl his trading canopy as soon as the sun filtered through the clouds – or at least the rain quit pouring. Sometimes though, he would up and leave in the middle of a thunderstorm, declaring that he had been gone too long.

Gone from what, Jared never knew.

Jensen peered out at the clouds, appearing to contemplate Jared’s answer. “Perhaps. I’ll be a few days in any case. No sense in travelling onwards in this when I am already here.”

The news was good, so Jared didn’t point out that Jensen might be able to outride the storm to a nicer place. It wouldn’t have done any good anyway. Jensen seemed to have an odd sense about the weather and its capricious nature. He blamed it on having spent so much ‘quality’ time with the skies.

“The rooms in the tavern are freshly painted,” Jared offered. He had done some of the painting himself for a small fee and a flagon of the good mead kept in the cellar.

“Oh?” Jensen asked, smile quirking out into a grin.

“Yes,” Jared said, keeping his own lips from twitching into an answering one.

“Does that mean that I am no longer welcome to roll my cot out at my normal spot? Or has it, perhaps, been taken over by items of a dragon nature?”

Jared flushed and looked down at the floor. “It is not overrun.”

“Then I will continue to bed down in the same place I have been bedding down at. I see no reason to change my pattern now,” Jensen declared.

“I was thinking only of your comfort,” Jared defended.

Jensen patted his shoulder as he walked past him to hang his tack on the wall to dry. “You think too much sometimes, Jared. If I was uncomfortable, I would have said so.”

“But you might be more comfortable at the inn,” Jared argued.

“And then where would that put me? With a head full of dragon stories and nobody to share them with? I should go insane.”

“Dragon stories?” Jared asked, ignoring the grunt of fond irritation from the stable master who was taking Jensen’s horses.

“You think that I would come with nothing to pay my rent?” Jensen asked as he handed over payment plus a tip to the waiting man. Jensen never skimped when it came to the care of his horses. He might be content to plop his bedding on Jared’s floor, but his horses were a different matter.

“I think that you are too kind to me,” Jared whispered as Jensen haggled over the price of hoof polishing. It was only a bonus that Jensen likely did not hear him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Mmm, that was a fine stew you purchased,” Jensen said as he snuggled down into the cot that he had lugged to Jared’s rooms.

“How do you know that I did not cook it myself?” Jared asked as he clambered into his own bed. Jensen always refused his offers to switch for the night, claimed that it wasn’t fair to ask Jared to give up his bed.

“You knew I was coming today, did you? Or has your appetite grown so much that you now cook for two?” Jensen asked in return. “Now quit pouting like I’ve insulted you, and I’ll tell you a bedtime story.”

“You make me sound like I’m a child,” Jared complained even as he turned his eyes on Jensen’s resting form. Of all of the goods that Jensen brought with him when he came, he always had a tale or two that he withheld only for Jared’s ears.

Information or superstition or pure fantasy, Jensen would drudge up all manner of information about dragons for Jared. Sometimes he would come with scrolls or artistic representations of the beasts. But what Jared cherished the most were the stories.

“They say,” Jensen started, “that dragons are vicious, nasty creatures who crush the life out of all who oppose them. Yet it is also said that they horde up treasures in caves, protected from all who would steal it. Now, how can these two things be? If a dragon is so mindless and strong that it breaks the bones of a knight through his armor, how can anything in its lair be less than mangled? It must not be so.”

Jared nodded eagerly. He would not do so before others, but Jensen had never judged him for his enthusiasm. He would caution Jared against it, but never make sport of him for it.

“I heard a story the other day…”

“From who?” Jared interrupted.

“What does it matter?” Jensen asked.

“Validity of the source,” Jared cited.

“It’s a bedtime story,” Jensen huffed fondly.

Jared pouted.

“Fine,” Jensen relented, “it was a baker’s daughter, gone up on a mountain to gather berries.”

The decision wasn’t a wise one, but Jared knew how hard times could drive people to complete illogical actions. If the bakery wasn’t getting good prices at market for either their goods or supplies, they had to find resource where they could.

“She became lost as she wandered and soon found herself farther up the mountain than she had planned. And where do you think she found herself?”

“The dragon’s lair,” Jared breathed out, eyes already wide with excitement.

“Indeed,” Jensen agreed, “the dragon’s lair. But where others said that the dragon was nothing but a bloodthirsty beast, she could not say that it was true. There was a pen of chickens and goats that were as well kept as any in her village and a pasture with a pair of fine horses neatly corralled.”

“The dragons keep animals?” Jared asked, finger itching for a quill and parchment. Animal husbandry was a new bit of information to add to his studies. If true, it would prove not only leniency, but higher thought.

“So it would seem,” Jensen confirmed. “Of course, there is the chance that the animals were being kept by a human.”

“A virgin,” Jared corrected.

“You have no proof of that save what idiots tell you,” Jensen reminded him.

“It is a well-established fact of lore that dragons will sometimes keep virgins in their lairs,” Jared argued.

“And do what with them?” Jensen asked.

Jared shrugged. “I don’t know. Perhaps they keep them like they do their other treasures? But it doesn’t matter what they want with them, just that they aren’t being eaten. I’ve seen enough ‘research’ that says that dragons take virgins because they are typically young and their flesh tender.”

“You are seeking knowledge that only benefits your point of view,” Jensen chastised.

“I am no scholar that needs to prove otherwise,” Jared reminded him. “Besides, any person that believes that academics are unbiased is a fool.”

“Such strong words,” Jensen tutted though his lips quirked into a smile.

“You will tell me again, tomorrow?” Jared asked as he reached up to snuff out the candle that was providing light.

He heard Jensen’s sigh. “You mean to record it in your journal, don’t you?”

“Of course,” Jared answered.

“It is only a tale, Jared. One with paltry information at that,” Jensen reminded him

“Yes, but tomorrow I may have dreamed it into something much larger,” Jared countered, “so you must tell it to me again.”

“I thought you didn’t care about academic integrity.”

“I care about my own integrity. Skewing for one’s view is one thing, supposition is an unrecognized art. But misrepresenting the words of another? That is not fair,” Jared told him.

Jensen grunted, and the sounds of his body shifting on his cot were loud in Jared’s room. “Someday you will tell me what you plan to do with all of this knowledge you are collecting. I know you are not preparing for a great and auspicious hunt.”

Jared forced a chuckle from his throat but did not otherwise answer. No, he did not intend to slay any dragons, but he did intend to find one, possibly more. The goal was one that not even Jensen would encourage him in, so he held his tongue.

When he was a young boy, the desire to meet a dragon had been borne from a want to know why he had been spared. Why of all those running for their lives had that dragon swooped down from the skies and saved him? As he grew older, that question still burned within him, but there were other questions that had arisen as well.

Why did the dragons hide themselves away when they were so powerful? What sort of magic did they possess within themselves? Were they lonely? Were their young so very scarce that they were never seen? And what exactly did they need with the virgins?

Most importantly, and kept secret even from parts of himself, Jared wanted to know if they could possibly, maybe have a spot for him?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joy was an inappropriate reaction to have when Jared rose the next day to thunder’s call on the air. Lightning storms were worse to deal in than downpours. The high winds and the spark of lightning were deterrent to all but the most desperate of shoppers.

Jensen would not be going out in such weather, and that meant that Jared was free to pry at his brain for knowledge.

“You are up to something,” Jensen accused as soon as Jared made his way to the other room that he let out. The first was his sleeping chambers and storage area. The second was where he was granted a small fireplace to cook his meals and more space where he kept his study.

Jensen’s eyes were raking over a map that Jared had gotten in a trade for some slightly aged potatoes. It was out of date, but Jared only cared about the topography on it, not the road names.

“What are these lines?” Jensen asked, his fingers tracing over a point where red and blue circles crossed each other.

“Flight paths,” Jared answered. There was no use denying Jensen the information he sought. He could get quite cross if he discovered that Jared was hiding things from him.

“Flight paths,” Jensen repeated, “of dragons.”

“No, of kites,” Jared said in exasperation.

“Jared…”

“Don’t lecture me. It is a perfectly valid study.”

“Why are you mapping them out?”

“Why wouldn’t I? I would think it to be an obvious area of interest when one spends most of his time researching a topic.”

“Jared,” Jensen’s tone had a hint of warning in it, “what are you planning to do?”

Jared stared defiantly at Jensen’s face for a few seconds before he crumpled. He had no will when it came to Jensen, none at all. It vexed him. “Flight ranges are indicative of how far a dragon might fly from its lair.”

“You mean to find their lairs?” Jensen sounded almost upset.

“I already know where some of them are,” Jared pointed out. “The locations aren’t exactly secret, just guarded well from fools with lances and swords.”

“But you don’t know where all of them are, so you are taking note of sightings and trying to come up with a general circumference of how far a dragon will travel from its lair,” Jensen filled in, his fingers mapping a red line back to a star that marked the known location of its lair.

“Yes,” seemed the simplest answer to give.

“Why?” Jensen asked again.

“Because.”

“Just because?” Jensen sounded like he didn’t believe that answer.

“Yes.”

“I don’t believe that,” Jensen told him.

Jared shrugged and picked up a tiny, pewter figure of a dragon that Jensen had given to him. It was his favorite representation of a dragon in all of his collection only because it was gray. Sooty and metallic almost like the scales of the beast that had saved him.

“You are trying to determine where the lairs are,” Jensen said after a moment. “Why?”

“Because they are dragons, Jensen. Dragons!” Jared exploded.

“That is a poor reason. They might kill you.”

“They won’t. My research says very clearly that they will not attempt any such thing. Abduction might be a different story, but that wouldn’t be so bad, now would it?”

“You want to be taken by a dragon now?” Jensen sounded flabbergasted.

Jared played off the flush that rose at his friend’s words as one of anger instead of shame. For yes, there was a part of him that wanted to be taken by a dragon. There were stories that he did not dare share with even Jensen: ones of riders and dragons touching each other in ways that were not seemly, ones that spoke of how dragons could take a different form.

Jared wanted to be a rider. He wanted to spread his thighs for his dragon both in the air and upon a bed, to share soft kisses and be possessed by the strength of a dragon. But the lore he had found was scant on how dragons picked their riders. The only clue was the old fables about virgins. Much as Jared hated to admit it, Jensen had a point about some of his beliefs being unsubstantiated.

Still it did not cost Jared anything to keep his virtue intact. Comely though he was, he did not have maidens lining up to flirt with him on market days. He was a bit too odd for that. His family line was reputable enough, but Jared was orphanage raised and at the low end of trade. His marriage prospects were dim even before one accounted for his obsession with dragons.

“I think they are the most majestic creatures on this world,” Jared finally answered his friend. “I should very much like to spend time in their company. Call me mad if you must, but it will not keep me from seeking them out.”

“Jared…”

“I do not care to speak further on the subject,” Jared cut him off.

“You are eternally stubborn,” Jensen groused. “I know not why I indulge you. I shouldn’t, but I do,” he continued as he thrust a parcel into Jared’s hands. The package was heavy, wrapped in thick parchment that likely cost more than a few coins in and of itself.

“We normally trade for such things,” Jared reminded him.

“Consider it a gift to commemorate the year of your birth.”

“My birthday was some months back,” Jared told him even as he carefully unknotted the twine holding the paper in place. “This had better not be dragon scales,” he warned.

“Like I would bring such a thing into your home,” Jensen scoffed. “You’d likely skin me while I slept in retribution.”

“A genealogy chain,” Jared whispered when the string gave way and the contents of the package were bared before his eyes. The metal links were heavy, each one bound to the next. The method of marking changed over the years. Some were pressed, others etched with acids, some simply scratched with a crude tool, but they were all marked.

“You see why I could not trade you for it,” Jensen said.

Jared nodded. There was nothing he had to equal the chain’s value. “This is not mine,” he said even though his heart pounded with the desire for it to remain in his possession.

“I would not admit that you have it if that is what you are asking,” Jensen hedged.

“You stole it?” Jared squeaked.

“No, I didn’t steal it,” Jensen said. “I just can’t have that getting into the wrong sort of hands.”

Jared nodded even though he did not look in Jensen’s direction. He couldn’t take his eyes off the chain in his hands. Genealogy chains were purported to be the way that dragons kept their lineages straight. It was said that they would steal away a human and make them stamp out the coin right before their first offspring hatched. Then they would feed the human to the baby dragon.

Jared wasn’t fond of the tale for obvious reasons, but he did always find it humorous that the supposed ‘evil’ and ‘unthinking’ beasts cared about documenting their family history. The thoughts seemed contrary to him. Then again Jared wasn’t the most normal of men.

“How long can I keep it?” were the next words out of Jared’s mouth. He would have to determine the best way to document the information on the chain. A wax mold would be best, but difficult to manage properly with fingers as unskilled as Jared’s. Notes would have to be taken, but they were always so fallible. The various colorings would have to be documented with what crayons and paints Jared had on hand, but he knew that his attempts would fall as short there as they had whenever he tried to replicate the color of his dragon’s scales.

“Until I come back next,” Jensen said.

The timeline was vague. Jensen could be gone for a week or for months. His schedule was not predictable. His trips to Jared’s village had increased in frequency over the years, and a part of Jared hoped it was because he valued Jared’s friendship.

“This is very precious, Jensen. Thank you,” he whispered.

“Should I leave you alone with it?” Jensen asked.

Jared laughed at the joke, but didn’t tear his eyes away from the markings on the links. He barely even noticed when Jensen left the building an hour later.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Jared first hatched his plan to become a dragon’s rider, he had focused his dreams on the one that had saved him. Surely they had a mystical bond, or he had something special about him that told the dragon that he needed saving. Time and research had mellowed his beliefs.

There was no guarantee that his dragon was even still alive. Of all the dragon sightings mapped out on his papers, Jared had only one line of gray. Even if he was able to determine the average area of travel a dragon would travel from its lair, there would be a good deal of ground to search for a being that might not still live.

There was also the chance that the dragon already had a rider. Jared had been a small boy when he was saved, and the dragon had still been large. Smaller than Jared’s little boy’s imagination and perspective had made him, but still large. Jared had tried to estimate the dragon’s wingspan by laying on his back in the streets, trying to remember how far those dusky wingtips had reached as the dragon swooped out of the skies to save him, but all that had accomplished was a free night in the jailor’s cell ‘sleeping off a bout of severe intoxication.’

For the record, Jared had been stone cold sober.

By his estimation, the dragon that saved him had been either unusually small or a young adult. No guess on gender either. Jared had been a terrified child. It had been nighttime. The only light that had enabled Jared to identify the color of the dragon’s scales had come from the buildings burning down around him. The last thing that had been on Jared’s mind was looking down to see if his savior had a shaft.

In any case, Jared’s rescuer was older than him by enough years that being spoken for was possible. Jared was past the acceptable marrying age himself now and only getting older. If he wanted to be a dragon’s rider, he wasn’t going to have the luxury of being picky about it. He was also going to have to start lair searching.

There was no proof that dragons had regular social interactions with each other, but Jared supposed that whatever methods they did have had to be better than the nothing that he had. So long as he wasn’t killed in a blast of premature, but entirely defensible, burst of flame, Jared felt that he would be able to plead a strong case.

Surely there would be some dragon out there that would want him. Humans were rather contrary. A willing, very willing rider would be something sought after.

“You are a very sick man, sir,” Jared told his reflection in the mirror over his wash basin. There was a time when he couldn’t look in his own eyes for the shame that his wants would bring him. He had wasted precious years trying to deny them or make them go away. Years that he could have been travelling about looking for the dragon that would be his.

But Jared’s past was now gone. He rationalized that if he had not taken the time to struggle with his desires before, then he would have to put his dragon through them when they came together. The period of frustration had helped mold him into a better man, and he was going to spend no more time worrying over it.

The thought of chasing his dreams had been frightening for so long that he had continually put it off. Then one day the fear of not attaining his dreams had become worse than that of facing them. There was a time to go, and that time was now.

Packing up his belongings was not as painful as he thought it might be. The box of his family’s possessions was the first to be secured along with all of his more precious dragon artifacts. His papers and journals were harder to secure for he needed to make certain that rain could not get to them while he travelled, but they too were soon neatly boxed away.

It was almost depressing how the cheerful mess of his rooms was able to be fit into so few containers. True, his tradable merchandise took up a bit more room, but not much. Jared had focused on making trades for money the closer he came to leaving. His remaining product was scant.

“Jensen is going to be most upset,” Jared muttered to himself as he hoisted the last of his possessions into his cart. Saying his farewells to the trader was something he could not do. To procrastinate any longer would mean Jared risking his courage and never leaving on his quest.

“I’ll give him back the genealogy chain someday,” Jared promised the donkey that he had purchased. Surely his dragon would be willing to assist him in finding his peddler friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of all of the dragons that Jared knew of, only the red dragon of the north had a locatable lair. It held court deep in a swamp that was full of pitfalls both nature and dragon made. It was said that if a man was walking on solid ground, he was only walking on the helmets of the fools who had drowned on their way to slay the beast.

The innkeeper told him as much when he asked, and Jared pretended to be the drunken idiot absorbed with a story rather than the purveyor of dragon lore that he was. The locals had no more information to share about the dragon than what Jared had already gleaned, so he retired to his bed early that night.

In the morning, he set out on foot to the dragon’s lair. He had safely stashed away his cart, lest any man should think to steal from him. His donkey was stabled away. The innkeeper thought him to be a man of nature interested in perusing the local mountainside rather than the insidious swamp that blocked the way to the dragon’s lair on said mountainside, so all was ready.

The boggy, nasty muck of the land could not suck Jared’s spirits down. Stories of the red dragon had been spinning in the air since Jared was a young boy, and he was certain of his prospects. There was no hardship he was unwilling to face when it came to tracking down his grey dragon.

“Hello?” Jared called out as the evening sky started to appear, bringing shade of orange and pink and violet with it. “Is anybody out here?”

Only the frogs answered him, their croaks sounding like laughter to Jared’s ears. “I’m looking for somebody,” he called out over the mocking amphibians. He’d heard far worse from his own kind. A couple of slimy toads weren’t going to deter him.

“A dragon? He’s red,” Jared said to the mosses surrounding him. “I’m hoping that he might be able to help me find another.”

“Now why would I do that?” A burst of hot, moist air almost toppled Jared over.

He didn’t shriek though as he spun around to see a monstrous red beast towering behind him. Instead he grinned, all white teeth and dimples. Jensen always said it was his best look, that he would fetch more gold for his wares if he smiled more.

“You can talk! I knew it!” Jared rejoiced.

The dragon pulled its head back and tilted it to the side.

“I am Jared,” Jared hastened to introduce himself.

“What are you doing in my swamp?”

“Looking for you,” Jared answered promptly.

“Why?” the dragon sounded equal parts confused and frustrated.

“You were the only dragon whose residence I was certain of,” Jared admitted.

“But why?”

Jared shrugged his shoulders and tried to figure out the best way to say that he was obsessed with dragons without sounding like a lunatic. He decided that couldn’t be done on a first introduction, so he went with a partial truth instead. “I’m looking for the dragon who saved my life. I want to thank him. Or her. I’m not certain of the gender exactly.”

“Saved your life?” the words were very amused this time.

“Yes,” Jared stated firmly. This conversation he had plenty of experience having. “When I was a small boy, a grey dragon saved me from death. I want to express my gratitude in person.”

“He probably just dropped you by accident. Meant to take you home and snack on you,” the dragon said dismissively.

Jared snorted. “That isn’t what my research shows. In fact, I don’t think that dragons like the taste of human flesh at all. Dead knights are virtually always identifiable when their bodies are found, even when they are partially decomposed. If dragons favored the taste of their flesh, then why not eat them?”

“Steel and iron leaves a funny taste in our mouths,” the dragon haughtily told him.

“Then there are the few people stolen from neighboring villages. Surely if dragons had such a taste for human flesh, more of them would be stolen away. Yet the number of abductees is very small indeed,” Jared argued, not needing his journals to cite information long ago memorized.

“You are very strange, human,” the red dragon said.

“Jared,” Jared corrected.

“You should go home to your wife and children.”

“I have no wife or child,” Jared responded. “I have only myself, my donkey and my possessions.”

“And a foolhardy taste for adventure,” the dragon noted.

“Not adventure,” Jared mumbled. He did not know what taste it was that drove him to seek out the company of dragons, but adventure was not it.

“I do not know any grey dragon,” the dragon told him.

Jared tried not to feel disappointed at the news. He had hoped that the dragon would be known, but he knew better than to expect it. “Do you then, know the blue dragon to the west of you? Perhaps he would know,” Jared suggested.

There was a pause before the dragon answered, “No.”

“Are you certain? Your flight paths overlap on a few cited instances. You are practically dragon neighbors, and…”

“You have mapped our flights?”

“You know of some other way to track down dragons?” Jared shot back. There was no point in denying it. He didn’t see what the big deal was about dragons’ flight paths. It seemed logical to him, and it wasn’t like dragon hunters were going to get any ideas from him about it. He wasn’t going to share.

The dragon let out a low rumble and cocked its head the other way as if viewing Jared from a different angle would give it inspiration. “You cannot stay out here.”

“I wasn’t really planning on it,” Jared said with an air of indifference. “I’m assuming that you’re older than several of your counterparts. Vain as well. Sightings of you date back much farther than most on my research. Extrapolating from that…”

“I am wilier than my counterparts. Hunters and knights have no success with me,” the dragon said boastfully.

“Statistically speaking, that cannot be true. The number of mounted dragon heads does not support an overwhelming success rate in dragon hunts. Even the number of verified dragon scales is not supportive of that, and the dullness of some indicate that they were perhaps shed in an act of nature rather than plucked from a live or recently live hide. Now, taking into account the number of false dragon heads made out of cow horns and…”

“Enough!” the dragon bellowed. “You speak much for a human and unwisely meddle with the affairs of dragons.”

If Jared had a copper for every time he’d heard words like that, he would have had enough money to buy a horse instead of a donkey. “I don’t consider it meddling. I am not here to stop you from going about your business. I am merely here to search out the dragon that saved me.”

“Oh, yes. That,” the dragon scoffed. “Do you expect me to believe those words? Why are you here, truly?”

“I know not what you…”

“Boy, you have pointed out, in a rather unflattering way, that I’ve been around for a while. No man comes looking to show his gratitude so late in life. What do you want?”

Jared bit back the desire to tell him that he wanted to talk to a less jaded dragon, but insults seemed to be a poor way to get what he did want. Still, voicing his desires was not something that Jared had been prepared to do so soon in his endeavor. “I…” he choked out, his voice failing him and his skin flushing.

“Come on, spit it out,” the dragon said tiredly.

“I have heard, that is to say, there seems to be some merit to the rumors of dragon riders?” Jared managed to force out.

The dragon pulled back a bit at that. “You best get any fanciful notions out of your head. When was the last time that you hear tale of a dragon carrying a rider on his back while he was raining fire down on a city?”

“Never,” Jared conceded, “but I was under the impression that it was quite a different form of riding. If such is the case, it does seem that a dragon might not wish to bring his rider into so dangerous a situation.”

“That is what drove you out to my swamp? Impressions and assumptions? You do not seem very wise, though your face seems to say that you are not young.”

Jared huffed and crossed his arms. “I am young enough.”

“Oh? You think so?” the dragon queried.

“I do,” Jared replied although it was a lie. He had no idea if he was young enough to become a rider still, had doubts on if he would ever give his thanks to the one who saved him. But he had spent far too long on the outskirts of human society to give up on his quest now that he had finally summoned the courage to go after it.

“What if I were to tell you that you are wrong?” the dragon asked.

“Why should I believe you?” Jared retorted. “You have already tried to mislead me about the blue dragon to the west. You are very much against me talking to you or even being here. Why shouldn’t I doubt the veracity of your words? I have been doubting the truths of humans about dragons for a very long time. Why should I expect dragons to speak more truthfully about themselves?”

“You invite trouble upon yourself.”

Jared snorted. “Trouble invited itself.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arguing with a dragon took time. That much Jared could now put down in his journal as fact. But he didn’t mind. In the end he was successful in getting the red dragon to agree to take him back to his lair. Once there, Jared quickly found out that dragons were completely helpless when it came to their riders.

“Look, boy,” the lady with greying hair told him, “the first thing you need to know about dragons is that they’re stupid. And vain. But mostly stupid.”

A loud harrumph came from the corner of the cave that they were in, but the dragon said nothing.

“I know they look majestic and powerful, but they’re idiots. It’s all treasure and riders and food with them. They don’t think like humans do, and they’re absolutely crazy when it comes to dragonlings.”

“You mean hatchlings?” Jared asked.

“No, dragonlings. Only people that call baby dragons ‘hatchlings’ are stupid knights who don’t bother to learn the proper name of what they’re killing.”

“Okay,” Jared said.

“Good. The next thing you should know is that they’re very, very jealous. Of your time, your affection, your mere existence… You let one latch onto you, and you’ll be doted upon and smothered to death for the rest of your life.”

“Can’t be ‘smothered to death’ when you’re still living. That’s an oxymoron,” the dragon grumbled from over in the corner.

“Shush,” the lady told the dragon. Then she turned back to Jared, “Where was I?”

“Dragon offspring?” Jared told her.

“Oh, yes. Well I suppose you don’t need to know about that unless you’re chosen,” she said.

A loud growl echoed in the cavern.

“Oh, heavens, Steven. You’re being ridiculous. Who would believe him if he went back to a village and told them anything?” she snapped at the dragon.

The dragon gave a halfhearted roar in response, then turned and stomped away, tail flicking back and forth as he went.

“You’re sure you want to find this dragon that saved you? I know that you think it means something, but there is every chance that it was just a whim. You might have looked too pretty to die.”

“Excuse me?” Jared asked, eyes wide.

“Dragons will save and rescue that which they deem to be precious, pretty or valuable. Steven has dragged home more half drowned cats and starving goats than I like to think about. I half think it is why he brought you back.”

That was mildly insulting, but Jared let her words slide. He needed information, and though she wasn’t giving him what he needed exactly, she was divulging some things that he was positively itching to put down in his journal.

“So you don’t know of any grey dragons,” Jared said, changing the topic from him and his ‘drowned kitten’ persona. “Do you know of any dragons that might?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the next few weeks, Jared learned more than he had ever dreamed of learning about dragons. He was flown from lair to lair as they passed him around like a very interesting bobble. A few of them seemed almost interested in keeping him like a pet, and it was only Jared’s insistence that he find the grey dragon that kept him moving. If there was one thing that dragon’s didn’t like, it was learning that they weren’t, in fact, the best dragon in the whole wide world.

Naturally, there were bad dragons just like there were bad people. In that, Jared was fortunate that he had gone to the red dragon’s lair as there were those dragons who would not allow him to leave their lairs because he was too pretty to lose or those who would have roasted him on sight. Instead he was generally treated well, though all of the dragons that he met were happily with rider.

Part of him suspected that the dragons were making a point of it.

“So, you haven’t heard of a grey dragon? Not ever?” Jared asked for what felt like the thousandth time.

“My apologies, but no,” the tiny pink dragon told him. Her ‘voice’ was light and delicate, like birds twittering inside his skull. “And I know almost everybody.”

Jared had been shocked to learn that her lair was so close to his own village, but Felicia liked to stay above the clouds for her flights. With how small she was, it was easy to see how she might never have been sighted. According to her, she was the fastest flyer of them all, speed making up for how pitiful her fire breathing was because of her small lungs. Her pink scales blended in well with the skies of the morning and evening lights.

“Although,” she said hesitantly, “I do know of you. Jared Padalecki – dragon scholar.”

“How?”

“You are quite famous,” she began, “I think that most of us had heard about you, but the stories were a bit misconstrued. You’re supposed to be short and not at all comely and bald.”

“None of the others have mentioned it,” Jared said.

Felicia flapped her wings a bit, causing a gust of air to swirl about. “I think that is more because of what they’re been told than any true lack of recognition. Jensen is a terrible gossip and storyteller. He’d have you believing that you sprang whole from a loaf of bread if you gave him half a chance.”

Jared’s whole body froze for a second. Blood rushed to his ears and he could barely say, “I’m sorry, who?”

“Jensen,” Felicia repeated. “He’s the green dragon that resides on the other side of your village. He’s a terrible recluse though. I wouldn’t go to see him if I were you. He’s horribly cranky if you come to visit him. He only likes to be sociable on his own terms.”

“His rider wouldn’t also happen to be named ‘Jensen’ would he?” Jared asked.

“Jensen has no rider,” Felicia said sadly. “As I said, he’s cranky about other people in his lair. I sometimes think he might eat his rider in a not so pleasant way, if you catch my meaning.”

“Right,” Jared mumbled. “Look, Felicia, I’m going to ask you something that you might not be comfortable with.”

“My rider once asked me if my genitals didn’t ice over when I flew in cold weather, Jared. I think I can handle it,” Felicia said, amusement in full force.

“I’ve heard stories, rumors really, about what dragons can do. And I’m wondering… do you ever look human?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You are in so much trouble. I am so mad at you right now. You are a very, very bad dragon!” Jared yelled the instant that Felicia deposited him at the mouth of Jensen the dragon’s lair. It had taken a hefty bribe to get her to do it. The donkey that he had spent all that money on was now happily stabled in Felicia’s pens.

Thankfully, she had thrown in some temporary storage for his wagon full of possessions as well. Although, Jared didn’t trust any dragon with having ‘temporary’ possession of anything. He might adore them to an incomprehensible level, but he had learned that their love of treasures was not blown out of proportion.

“I cannot believe that you have been lecturing me for years. Years, Jensen! And the trips and the stories and the gifts, you’ve just been laughing your scaly hided ass off, haven’t you? You’re a very, very bad dragon!” Jared declared again as he stomped through the stone hallways.

“And I cannot believe that you wouldn’t ever think of getting me out of that hell hole. Did you suddenly think that someday I was going to be happy there? Pick up a human family and spend the rest of my life trying to rebuild my parent’s trade?”

“Answer me!” Jared roared when he heard nothing.

The only sound was his own voice reverberating on the stone walls and a faint barking from farther back in the lair. A couple of hours of exploration later proved to him that Jensen wasn’t even home. His righteous tirade wasted on rooms full of treasure and a few doted upon pets.

“Fine,” Jared huffed. “If he isn’t home to talk to, then his isn’t home to object.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jensen’s kitchen was rather well stocked. Jared was very grateful for this by the time that he found the place as he had grown quite hungry digging through Jensen’s overly elaborate passageways. The trip had started to frustrate him as his hunger had grown, but his irritation had faded a bit when he had stumbled into a room that held all of the various knickknacks that Jared had either given or traded to him over the years.

That room was both touching and a relief. Jared had been fairly certain before that the dragon named Jensen and his Jensen were one in the same, but there had been some doubt. Not that he would have been keen to leave even if they weren’t.

Jared had been to enough dragon lairs and met enough riders to know that his desire to become a rider wasn’t going to change. He wanted what they had. He wanted to be the one telling his silly, stubborn dragon how pretty he was. He wanted to be the one cooing sweet nothings into a dragon’s scales. This Jensen was the only unattached dragon he had heard of, and he was going to do his best to make things work out.

A loud roar interrupted Jared’s pining. Whatever Jensen’s attributes as a dragon, stealth was not among them. His footsteps thundered inside the lair as he came towards the kitchen.

Jared just kept stirring the soup his was making.

Jensen announced his arrival with another bellow as his massive green form burst into his spacious cooking area. Jared could see the moment that his friend realized that it was Jared who was at his stove. Shock looked the same in Jensen’s eyes no matter the form.

Jared hit him on the snout with the ladle he’d been using. “You’re a horrible friend,” he declared before tossing the ladle at the wash bin and reaching for a clean one.

The soup trickled down the side of Jensen’s face, but he didn’t say anything.

“Don’t bother pretending you aren’t you,” Jared told him. “I’ve seen enough of your lair to know better.”

The air shimmered around Jensen like heat liked to ripple up from stones on a hot day, and his body shifted into his human form. He was naked. He also looked angry.

“Where have you been!” Jensen demanded.

“Don’t try to change the subject on me, you lying, misdirecting, very bad dragon!” Jared shot back.

“I went to town, and you weren’t there. Do you know what I thought had happened to you? Nobody knew where you had gone to, only that you had to leave in a hurry. There was talk of ransoms on your head because you weren’t sharing information with the dragon hunters!”

“Oh? Well maybe if you had sometime in the past years mentioned that you were a dragon, I wouldn’t have had to leave that way,” Jared snidely informed him.

“I was worried!” Jensen snapped.

“It was your fault!” Jared informed him. “You know that had you told me I would have shared anything with you.”

“If I had told you, you would’ve enshrined me. I’m not some god that needs to be worshipped.”

“No, you’re a stupid dragon who doesn’t know what is good for him,” Jared declared.

“I’ve been a dragon longer than you’ve been a man,” Jensen pointed out.

“Which only shows that you’re very bad at picking a rider,” Jared retorted, “which turns out well for me, as I’m moving in.”

“No. You’re not. You’re going home,” Jensen ordered.

“I am home,” Jared countered. “But you’ll have to go to Felicia’s lair to fetch my things before she gets attached to them.”

“Felicia?” Jensen’s chest puffed out a little as he said the name.

Jared leveled an accusatory gaze at his friend. “Yes, she was quite helpful, you know? Unlike somebody I know, she was more than willing to tell me all about the dragon named Jensen and how dragons can shift into human forms.”

“Jared, you’re being insane,” Jensen argued.

“And you’re in denial. Don’t think I can’t see how jealous you are that I was spending time at her lair.”

“That, that has nothing to do with anything,” Jensen huffed. “You’re being crazy.”

“Oh where have I heard that before?” Jared pondered. “Oh, wait, my entire village. Sorry, Jensen. They do it better than you.”

“You need to go home and be safe,” Jensen ordered him.

“You need to go to Felicia’s lair and pick my stuff up,” Jared corrected him. “And while you’re gone, you can start thinking of ways to make this whole deception thing up to me.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Staying with Jensen was both better and worse than Jared had thought being with a dragon would be. He knew a lot about Jensen, so he knew that they were compatible together. But he also knew Jensen. They’d long ago had their first spat as friends, so there was no romance period where he thought his dragon could do no wrong.

Then again, Jensen was in denial about him being Jared’s dragon, so there was that whole debacle as well. From an objective point of view, Jared could see where a dragon might balk at the whole human coming into his lair and claiming him thing. Many humans thought of dragons as beasts to be slain or tamed. But Jensen knew that Jared wasn’t one of those humans.

Jared knew that Jensen felt affection towards him. The dragon had always been amused by him from the day that they first met. So it was not as if there was no warm sentiment between them. It was just that Jensen was bizarrely stubborn about how Jared would be safer back in his own village.

Wooing Jensen was also frustrating. Perhaps it was because Jared had never tried to woo anybody before, but he was starting to doubt that. Jensen just seemed flummoxed every time that Jared paid him a compliment. It wasn’t that Jensen didn’t like to hear how pretty he was. Jared had caught the dragon preening one too many times to believe that he’d managed to find the only humble dragon in the world.

But Jensen was certain that Jared would be safer back in the village, which annoyed Jared to no end. Dragons were ferocious in their need to defend their lairs and possessions. Jensen of all dragons was known for his aggressiveness and general lack of appreciation for intruders. His lair was safe even in comparison to other lairs.

Naturally, Jared wasn’t going to allow Jensen to get rid of him quite so easily. He wasn’t the kind of man to give up on his dreams. He had gone too far down his path to turn back. Plus, Jensen was very attractive. Jared wasn’t blind, and Jensen’s lack of a rider was practically a sign that they should be together.

“I made supper,” Jared called out as soon as he heard Jensen’s return to the lair. “Your favorite,” he added.

“My favorite is that dessert you make with the stale bread,” Jensen reminded him.

Jared grinned. “I know. That’s why I hid a loaf so that I could make it for you.”

Jensen looked touched and then uncomfortable. He opened his mouth to no doubt say something foolish, so Jared kept him from making that mistake by pushing a carrot into his mouth.

“I’m not a horse,” Jensen complained as he pulled the offending root out.

“Well, you’re supposed to be ridden aren’t you?” Jared purred.

Jensen laughed and shook his head. It wasn’t quite the reaction that Jared had been going for, but it was far better than another one of Jensen’s rebuffs.

“I also made soup and some roasted ribs,” Jared continued as he walked back to the table where he’d set out the food.

“Jared, you don’t have to do this,” Jensen said even as he sat down.

“I do,” Jared countered. “This is my home now, and as you’re not allowing me to help you clean your rooms or do anything else, I can only contribute this way.”

A tiny growl cleared Jensen’s throat at the mention of treasures. He had quickly forbidden Jared from getting anywhere near anything breakable after Jared had dropped a vase that he had been inspecting.

Jared just smiled at him and sat down at the table. “Let’s have dinner.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“No, Jared,” Jensen growled, his arms grossed obstinately across his chest.

“Why not?” Jared demanded as calmly as he could. Being dressed in merely his undergarments took away a great deal more courage than he would’ve thought.

“Because that’s just not how it works!” Jensen exclaimed.

“Oh, I see. Well, forgive me for daring to assume anything about riders, but you’re not exactly elaborating on it. Also? I think you’re searching for yours the wrong way, because all the other dragons that I’ve visited…”

Jensen let out a rather loud hiss, and Jared tried not to frown too hard. As much as Jensen was being pigheaded and stubborn about the whole rider idea, he was also irked by the thought of Jared spending any amount of time around another dragon.

“You know,” Jared said slowly. “You really don’t have a right to disapprove. It isn’t like you want me.”

“I didn’t say that!” Jensen instantly protested.

Jared gave him a blank stare.

“I just said that it would be better for you if you were back with the humans is all,” Jensen mumbled.

“And I disagree with you. You don’t get to decide what is best for me, Jensen. That isn’t how relationships are supposed to work. Any relationship. Except, maybe, for parents of young children who don’t know any better and can’t make good decisions, but I think that both of us are past that stage in our lives, don’t you?”

“You don’t understand,” Jensen protested. “You don’t want to be my rider, Jared.”

“I’m pretty sure I do,” Jared protested.

“No. You don’t!” Jensen yelled back.

“Why not?” Jared snapped.

“Because I dropped you!” Jensen spat back, face flushed.

“That doesn’t even make any sense,” Jared said.

Jensen shook his head, then buried his face in his hands. “I dropped you. I… I couldn’t hold onto you and I dropped you. I’m not a good dragon, Jared. I’m a very, very bad one.”

“Jensen, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you’re still not making sense.”

“When you were little! It was me, Jared. Okay? I was the one who plucked you out of the flames, and I dropped you. I could’ve killed you with my clumsiness,” Jensen’s voice sounded bitter as he said the words.

Shock bounced around inside of Jared’s skull. That dragon had been grey, he was certain of it. Jensen’s scales were varying shades of green. From dark emerald to pale mint on his underbelly, they were like a dazzling forest.

“That’s impossible,” Jared said dumbly. “That dragon was grey.”

Jensen snorted. “I’d been playing in the ashes. I was covered in soot. I could’ve corrected you about that misconception ages ago, but… then I would have been forced to explain why I knew that you had the color wrong.”

“You weren’t planning on leaving me?” Jared asked.

“No,” Jensen said, “I was planning on taking you home with me. I was certain that my father and mother-rider would let me keep you until we were old enough to move to my own lair. Only I did drop you, and father called for me to leave. I begged to go back for you, but we couldn’t. Neither I nor my father started that fire, Jared. I want you to know that.”

“I know,” Jared admitted. “I’ve known that for years. The fire patterns don’t match ones caused by dragon breath.”

Jensen nodded. “Men set those fires. And men came hunting us afterwards. This lair was a new one for my family. We weren’t well established in it for guarding, so father took us away. I could have gotten you killed, Jared.”

“You were young,” Jared knew his words to be true. If Jensen was the dragon that saved him, he had to have been young himself at the time for his form was far larger now, huge in comparison to some of the other dragons that Jared had seen. “You can’t be blamed for what happened. You saved me.”

“I almost got you killed,” Jensen argued.

“I would have died in that fire,” Jared stubbornly reminded him.

“But I wasn’t being altruistic. I had been playing in those fires. They felt good on my hide, and when I saw you I wanted you for my own. I had no understanding of your safety beyond the fact that I wanted you alive because it would benefit me. I don’t think that you grasp that.”

“You’re right,” Jared conceded. “The only thing I’m grasping right now is that you used to want me and now you don’t.”

“It’s not like that!” Jensen argued.

“Yes it is!” Jared yelled back. “You’re acting like the acts of a child should be held against you. Your intention was to save me, and you did.”

“I didn’t know that though,” Jensen said. “I flew away and I didn’t come back for years afterwards. At first I was too young to fly so far on my own, but then I became afraid. Not knowing if you were alive was somehow better than knowing for certain that you had perished. I wanted you to be healthy and safe, Jared. You won’t be that with me.”

“You’re being as dramatic as a minstrel trying to sell his tale in a tavern,” Jared dismissed. “You are comparing your youth to your adulthood. Would you judge me the same? Would you judge any other person like this?”

“It isn’t the same, Jared. I’m a dragon. What is precious to me must be prote…”

Jared cut him off with a kiss. It lacked finesse for he had hardly kissed anybody before Jensen, but he made certain that it was full of intent. “You talk too much,” he accused and then kissed Jensen again to keep him from responding.

A soft whimper came out of the back of Jensen’s throat before a hesitant pressure began to be applied back to Jared’s lips. His own attempts were as clumsy as Jared’s, but they were gentle where Jared’s were passionate.

“Isn’t that much better?” Jared asked as he pulled his mouth away, leaving just a tiny gap between their faces.

“I…” Jensen croaked out, and Jared couldn’t help but lean forward to kiss him again.

“You’re very beautiful, stunning even,” he whispered against Jensen’s ear as he began to experiment with kissing places other than his dragon’s mouth.

“Don’t say things like that,” Jensen chided even as his body relaxed into Jared’s at the words.

“Why?” Jared asked before he stole another kiss from Jensen’s lips. “Because you like to hear them?”

“If you keep telling me such things,” Jensen warned, “I’ll not be able to let you go.”

“Are you revealing your soft underbelly to me then?” Jared teased as he trailed his fingers over the cloth covering Jensen’s stomach.

Jensen snorted. “You know that is a poor place to stab a dragon at, don’t you? We’ve been selling that tale to stupid hunters in taverns for ages.”

“Mmmm, it feels rather soft to me,” Jared said.

Jensen’s chest puffed out. “It does not!”

“No?”

A scowl appeared on Jensen’s face, and he took a step back, pulling the linen over his head to expose his chest and abdomen. “I am in my physical prime,” he boasted, gesturing at his muscles. “I am not soft.”

“Most definitely not,” Jared agreed as he advanced on the dragon, pulling him back into his arms.

“You tricked me!” Jensen accused as Jared’s hands started roaming over the slightly too warm flesh, caressing the now exposed skin.

“I did,” Jared agreed. “Dragons cannot resist the desire to preen. You should give into this urge more often. Preening is a comely look on you.”

“This is wrong,” Jensen said even as his body shivered under Jared’s caresses. “I’m doing this wrong,” he clarified before Jared could argue with him.

“How so?” Jared asked.

“I’m supposed to chase after you. The rider does not chase the dragon.”

Jared didn’t bother keeping the smile from his face. “Rider?” he asked.

“You thought I was trying to abduct you so that you would do my chores for me?” Jensen asked back. “Father was always going on about how having a proper rider was important, and mother was always talking about how hard it was to adjust to living with a dragon after being raised in a human village. I figured that I might as well take you when you were young, so you didn’t have to suffer through the loneliness that some riders do. If you never got attached to human ways of life, you couldn’t miss them.”

Jensen snorted. “I can see where my logic was a bit flawed in that area. Humans need social interaction to develop.”

“I think it was a fine idea,” Jared told him. “I think that we should start working on implementing it right away.”

“I gathered that with you showing up in my chambers in nothing but your dressing gown,” Jensen said.

“Mmm, your appearance is very tempting to my poor, virginal self. I could not restrain my lusts for you any longer.”

“You’re a horrible tease,” Jensen purred, “telling me such things.”

“Not a tease,” Jared corrected. “I intend to allow you anything you want.”

With a growl, Jensen picked Jared up, his smaller human form having no problems lifting Jared’s larger one. He doesn’t throw Jared onto the nearby bed, instead he lays him out on it like a precious piece of glass before hastily backing away and stripping out of his remaining clothing with a fast and awkward looking dance.

The idea seems like a good one, so Jared rolls to his knees so that he can hoist his shift over his head.

“You weren’t wearing your underpants,” Jensen observed.

Jared shrugged. He had wanted things to be easy if he succeeded in seducing his dragon. Besides that, he’d been wearing his oldest garment, worn thin by years of use. Jensen had to have noticed the unencumbered nature of his cock far before Jared actually disrobed.

“I believed that I had waited long enough, why add an additional layer of clothing to encumber the process?” was what Jared settled on saying.

“You’re very pushy, for a rider,” Jensen said as he clambered up on the mattress next to him.

That made Jared laugh. “I doubt that. Dragons are stubborn. Being pushy is a necessity, with my own dragon more than any other.”

Instead of Jensen’s face turning into a displeased scowl at the intimation that he was difficult, it split into a pleased smile. “Your dragon?” he murmured.

Jared beamed back at him. “You weren’t so thrilled with that idea a few moments ago.”

“Dragons don’t need days’ worth of time to change their minds. We aren’t like you humans who have to brood over it. We save our angst for more important topics,” Jensen scoffed with an air of superiority about him.

“Like obsessing over things that happened in your youth?” Jared said. He might be enamored with dragons, but he was still human. He didn’t need to let his whole race be slandered when only about half of them deserved it.

Jensen huffed and flopped down on his back, hard red cock bobbing up against his stomach. “You should come over here and ride me instead of arguing.”

“Now who is being pushy?” Jared chides as he knee walks his way up the bed. “I don’t get romanced?”

Jensen made a disgruntled noise in the back of his throat and sat up just long enough to half drag, half lift Jared so that he ended up sprawled across Jensen’s body, a leg on each side of Jensen’s hips.

“Thought my rider was romancing me?” Jensen challenged. “You seemed to be intent on it.”

“I need to teach you about reciprocation,” Jared jested as he pushed himself upwards so that he was straddling Jensen instead of using him for a pillow.

“I am familiar with the concept,” Jensen said as he trailed hesitant fingertips over Jared’s stomach, flirting with the space between his hands and Jared’s manhood.

“Then perhaps you could assist me?” Jared said with a pointed glance to where Jensen’s oil pot rested beside the bed. It was half empty, and Jared had spent a good two days fuming over that before he realized that Jensen was using it to pleasure himself and not others. After that, he had felt guilty for snooping around in Jensen’s private things, but not too guilty.

“I do not promise to be good at this,” Jensen told him as he stretched to grab the small pot and coat his fingers with the slick contents.

Jared smiled as he shimmied forward a little to allow Jensen better access as he reached around and began to tease at Jared’s hole. “That only means you can improve,” he gasped as Jensen’s first finger slipped inside him.

The pressure was good, but knowing it was Jensen was what made it feel great. As much as Jared knew that he was destined to be with a dragon, he doubted that he would have felt so connected to any but Jensen. He felt comfortable with him in ways that he wouldn’t with any other.

“You are very special, precious,” Jensen cooed as he slid another finger inside. Jared groaned and pushed back on the two digits. He could feel Jensen’s erection rubbing against the back of his thigh when he moved, and his own throbbed in response.

Jensen’s fingers pushed in harder in response to Jared’s thrust back. Before Jared knew what was happening, they were thrusting against each other. A third finger slipped in beside the other two, and Jared reared back, and before he knew it, Jared was clenching his eyes shut and spraying his seed over Jensen’s chest.

“Heavens,” Jared moaned as he covered his face with his hands. He might be a virgin, but he knew how sex worked, had even researched how males might copulate together for the specific purpose of knowing what to do. His performance was not normal.

“Oh, poor rider,” Jensen’s voice was trying to sound sympathetic, but Jared could hear the amusement behind it as well as the lingering lust in it.

“Don’t laugh at me. Stupid dragon,” Jared tacked on as he pulled a hand away from his face to slap at Jensen’s chest, belatedly making a face at the mess he’d made of it.

“Not laughing sat you,” Jensen said with a betraying chuckle. “I’m laughing at us. Or did you think that the wetness on your backside was all your doing?”

Now that Jensen mentioned it, things did feel a bit too wet back there. “Truly?” Jared asked, not bothering to hide his shock. “Jensen, I was barely even touching you.”

“Yes, do mention lack of control to the fearsome dragon,” Jensen grumbled.

Jared snorted and collapsed onto the bed beside Jensen, ignoring the mess for the moment. “I have nothing to fear from you.”

Jensen’s answering look was a soft one. “No. You do not.”

“Besides, all this means is that we need to practice,” Jared said with as dirty a leer as he could manage. “I hope you don’t have many plans to go terrorizing villagers or stealing treasures away from greedy men.”

“I’ve already stolen their greatest treasure,” Jensen said fondly.

“No,” Jared corrected him, “I believe that I stole you.”


End file.
